Pearl Harbor prompted him to enlist

Harber Hall went on to fly 23 missions on B-29 aircraft with the 330th bomb group

By HARBER HALL as told to ABBY WEINGARTEN

Before Harber Hall enjoyed a long, fruitful career in Illinois politics, he displayed his patriotism by enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1941.

The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor on Sunday, Dec. 7 that year, prompting Hall to enlist in the service that Monday.

Hall went on to fly 23 missions on B-29 aircraft with the 330th bomb group, 315th bomb wing during World War II. He began as a bombardier, transitioned to a radar bombardier and later trained to be a pilot.

Now 93 and an avid tennis, bridge and chess player, Hall lives on Longboat Key.

'I was a student at the University of Miami and I was majoring in business administration before I enlisted in what was called the Army Air Corps at that time. We were attacked by the Japanese on Sunday and I enlisted on Monday. I became an aviation cadet and I spent 17 years in the Air Force. I was a bombardier in the Pacific Theater and a pilot in the Berlin Airlift.

In World War II, I was bombing Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Kamakura were the major cities we were bombing. I flew from Guam, dropping bombs on cities throughout the Japanese empire. I was on the last bombing mission, and the war was officially over when my plane was still dropping bombs. I was never shot down, but I had an engine shot out once and I had to land at Iwo Jima. They shot out one engine (we had four), so we landed, got a new plane and went on our way.

I was then stationed in Germany until the early 1950s in the Air Force, where I attained the rank of colonel. I flew on the Berlin Airlift, which was a humanitarian effort. Berlin was under the control of, I think, five countries at that time. These countries took over Berlin and I flew mercy missions from Rhine-Main and Wiesbaden to Berlin, carrying things they needed like a ton or two of powdered milk.

They didn't have access to certain, important things, so we brought them there. Berlin was surrounded by unfriendly countries like Russia, so we flew vital things there that they didn't have access to, and that went on for a solid year.

After I left the Air Force in 1956, I went back to Bloomington, and I owned an operated a real estate brokerage firm. Then I started my career in politics. I was the McLean County treasurer from 1962 to 1966, and I was the president of the Illinois County Treasurers' Association from 1965 to 1966. I eventually became the 21st Illinois Congressional District's delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1972.

I was a senator representing McLean, DeWitt, Logan, Menard, Piatt and the Eastern half of Woodford County, and I served as the chairman of the Labor and Commerce Subcommittee on Collective Bargaining for Public Employees. I was also the vice chairman of the Revenue Committee. In 1979, I retired from the Illinois Senate.'